In some ways they have though, at least in terms of time allocation. When Facebook was in its heyday it was the default social network. They dont seem to be adding as many new users and I suspect they are churning old users. They also have to compete with wechat, twitter, tiktok, reddit, twitch, etc so its not obvious to anyone but facebook how loyal the userbase is.

Facebook is becoming less relevant so yes these companies will most likely be back, but what about 5 years? They might not be willing to pay the same rates. Facebook will kind of be like a personal email client that people check occasionally. Facebook.com specifically, Instagram itself will remain popular for a while I would wager.

> In some ways they have though, at least in terms of time allocation. When Facebook was in its heyday it was the default social network. They dont seem to be adding as many new users and I suspect they are churning old users. They also have to compete with wechat, twitter, tiktok, reddit, twitch, etc so its not obvious to anyone but facebook how loyal the userbase is.

But it has nothing to do with loyalty. It has all to do with algorithms. If Facebook's AI is superior to Twitter, Wechat, TikTok, Reddit and Twitch then advertisers will never leave Facebook. All Facebook needs is 30 seconds of user time to show them ads. Also don't forget the audience network that Facebook has. Are you playing a free game of Ludo on your mobile? You will be shown an ad in between games. That ad is served by Facebook. So it is not even necessary for the user to be on the platform to be shown ads! Now how do you tackle that? Publishers will also have to abandon Facebook. That will not happen so easily. The only way to tackle Facebook is to create an alternative that has at least 50% of the user base that Facebook does and also have an equally good AI Ad platform or superior.

> Facebook is becoming less relevant so yes these companies will most likely be back, but what about 5 years? They might not be willing to pay the same rates. Facebook will kind of be like a personal email client that people check occasionally. Facebook.com specifically, Instagram itself will remain popular for a while I would wager.

Facebook knows that. That is why they are constantly improving their algos to make it cheaper themselves. Advertisers don't want access to a billion people really. They just need to sell to a few hundred or thousand people to make their profits. Even if Facebook userbase comes down by 50%, if the Facebook AI is half as decent as it claims to be, it will still find the right audience for advertisers to target!

Personal opinion but TikTok's is great. I got sucked in in less than 1 min. I actually think the rest suck, including FB. Reddit has no AI.

Netflix's recommendation engine is usually spot on for me but I guess that is less difficult.

TikTok somehow convinced a bunch of young girls to dance in scanty clothes for the enjoyment of the internet for likes and comments. It’s not as bad as it used to be but knowing how they got started, as a de facto child porn production and distribution outlet (imagine if /r/jailbait was a default subreddit when Reddit launched), it’s hard for me to get over that and use TikTok.

When I open TikTok, that is not what I see at all. It's funny videos, sketches, memes that are all pretty relevant to where I live and around current affairs.

That said I don't use TikTok (or Instagram, FB etc) so maybe it's more like you're saying.

Does that make a difference then? Facebook's going to continue tracking the users all the same, their ad formats will just be different

Depends which users. A lot of teenagers are "mostly on Instagram" or "only use it for Messenger". And teenagers are apparently an important population to marketers.

I know FB owns Instagram but the point is, Facebook as a platform may be past its prime in NA.

With the rise of TikTok, I wonder if Instagram is past its prime as well?

Most of my friends have stopped posting photos to Instagram, and just occasionally share stories now. But for short-form video content, TikTok seems to be growing much faster.

Yeah but you forget that TikTok is effectively spyware for the Chinese government packaged to look like a social media app.

I don't think anyone here forgot it. The average user, however, even if informed, likely will not care. I tried to convey all the issues surrounding FB to my SO, which produced generalized shrug.

I think a more drastic message is needed. Maybe some more distributed version of fappening that affects nearly everyone. That could get some attention. Could.

Remind them it got started as the reddit.com/r/jailbait for video and see what their reaction is.

Didn’t forget, I just remember how Zuckerberg regarded Facebook users back in the day (and those were Harvard students).

Facebook had more daily users in the US in Q2 than ever before. They've never had a quarterly decline.

What's the quality of those new users though? The people signing up to FB for the first time in 2020 are probably not prime.

There’s even a meme: Facebook is for boomers.

Idk how much of that is true, but apps like Instagram and tiktok are definitely talked about more these days

Boomers have the money, though. And advertisers like people with money.

Smart advertisers, anyway.

The older folks make facebook sticky for the younger people too. It might not be their first choice for social media, but they're on there cause extended family are on there.

Some people quit facebook, most people don't. There's lots of groups, and now you have market place. It's genuinely useful.

Yeah my wife and I (millennials) have both been "Facebook is for Boomers" people in the past, but when I was into competitive card games all the events were organized on Facebook, and now that we have a baby there are all kinds of new parent groups that we use.

We still don't really think much of it as a social network but somehow while we weren't looking it pretty much ate Craigslist, Meetup, and Local News so now we're on the platform again. Like if someone has some baby formula they don't need, we find out on Facebook. If somebody gets stabbed at the pizzeria across the street, we find out on Facebook. If there's a card game tournament, I (found) out on Facebook.

> Facebook is for boomers.

I can confirm that, I've been told this by my niece.

Advertisers just go to where the eye balls are at. Facebook has a good moat but places like reddit and twitter don't. There are already clones for both twitter and reddit. Some communities have left reddit and started their own standalone communities. Often times these communities are so tight-knit that most of the users leave the original platform completely. Same story for twitter. People are moving to a new platform called parler.

> At the end of the day, users haven’t abandoned FB and that’s what advertisers care about.

This goes, especially, to older people who couldn't care less and just want an easy platform to post political memes and gossip about the weird guys who come around the neighborhood in big trucks and snatch everyone's garbage from the curb.